1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method and apparatus for processing sensor signals used for control/regulation of a vehicle chassis.
2. Description of the Related Art
To improve the travel comfort of passenger cars and/or trucks, the configuration of the chassis is of considerable significance. With the passive chassis which presently continue to be used predominantly, the suspension systems between the vehicle body and the wheels are at the time of installation configured either tendentially hard ("sporty") or tendentially soft ("comfortable"), depending on the predicted use of the vehicle. An influencing of the chassis characteristic during the travel operation is not possible with these systems.
With active chassis, in contrast, the characteristic of the suspension systems can be influenced during the travel operation in the sense of a control or regulation, depending on the existing state of travel.
For control or regulation of such an active chassis, the suspension systems are actuated for application of forces between the wheels and the body depending on the current state of travel of the vehicle. For that purpose it is essential to capture the momentarily existing state of travel of the vehicle as exactly as possible.
To capture the state of travel, movements which are typical for the road performance of the vehicle are generally sensed. These movements are for instance longitudinal and transverse movements of the vehicle, vertical body movements of the vehicle and yaw movements. Depending on chassis regulation or control strategy, these sensor signals are then processed to actuation signals for the actuators of the chassis regulating system. For that purpose, most varied regulation and/or control strategies derive from the prior art, which for instance differ in that a minimization of the vehicle body movements (high comfort) or a minimization of the wheel load fluctuations (high road safety) is desired.
Essential for these strategies is that the obtained sensor signals represent the movements of the vehicle on the road surface in a maximally unadulterated manner.